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Ruukki Completes Employee Negotiations, Avoids Plant Closure

11/26/2013 -
The employer-employee negotiations initiated in October by Ruukki Building Systems at its Peräseinäjoki plant in Finland have now been completed.

Closure of the plant has been avoided as a result of the negotiations. Production will continue on a scaled-down basis and the plant will focus on manufacturing large steel trusses for the construction industry. A total of 58 jobs will be lost.

The employer-employee negotiations affected the entire production personnel, a total of 95 persons. The negotiations were initiated due to overcapacity and weakened market conditions. Discontinuing production at the plant was one of the options explored.

Some of the redundancies are to be carried out through pension arrangements. The redundancies will mainly take place during the current year. In addition, temporary lay-offs of production personnel at Peräseinäjoki will continue according to a separate plan to be specified according to market conditions.

"The entire personnel of the unit have been actively involved in exploring different options to enable operations to continue and together we have identified a competitive business model for the plant. Specialization will enable us to ensure cost-efficient production for the needs of building projects. The change in our former business model is so great that regrettably we have had to also resort to redundancies. We will do all we can to try to assist those who have been made redundant to find new jobs by, for example, providing coaching to increase their chances of employment," says Tommi Matomäki, executive vice president, Ruukki Building Systems.

In October, Ruukki Building Systems announced it was to close its unit in Kalajoki, Finland. Also the personnel at the Ylivieska unit in Finland have been temporarily laid off because of weak market conditions.

Ruukki specializes in steel and steel construction. We provide customers with energy-efficient steel solutions for better living, working and moving. We have around 9,000 employees and an extensive distribution and dealer network across some 30 countries including the Nordic countries, Russia and elsewhere in Europe and the emerging markets, such as India, China and South America. Net sales in 2012 totaled €2.8 billion.